Sino-American, Solar Energy Swap Shares on Cooperation Concern

Taipei, March 15, 2011 (CENS)--Sino-American Silicon Products, Inc. and Solar Energy Tech Corp. recently announced swapping their stocks to enhance their cooperation on the solar-energy front.

According to terms of the swap, Sino-American gives one share in exchange for 1.2669 Solar Energy shares. Swap baseline date is set on April 15. Through the exchange, Sino-American will acquire a 10% stakes in Solar Energy while offering a 5% of its stocks to Solar Energy.

After the swap, each side will hold two director and one supervisor seats at the other.

Industry executives pointed out that the deal was particularly underscored by the involvement of Cherr Wang, chairperson of handset maker HTC Corp., who has acquired stakes in Sino-American. Also, the two companies have been partly funded by Wang to co-open a photovoltaic venture. Solar Energy has depended on Sino-American for 15-20% of the crystalline silicon for its solar cells, making it a major customer of Sino-American.

Sino-American is currently Taiwan's No.2 supplier of crystalline silicon wafers, turning out 1.2 gigawatts of the materials a year. Solar Energy produces around one gigawatt of cells a year.

Solar Energy Chairman K.H. Liu pointed out that through the partnership with Sino-American will his company secure steady supplies of the materials and help bring down solar-power costs to grid parity levels, at which solar-power cost is close to grid-power cost.